Empty Nesters??

It finally happened... After 35 years of marriage and 34 years of having children in our home, we are "empty nesters". I always thought I would enjoy having some time to myself, but it stinks! Taylor and Nicole left early this morning from the Puebla airport and then Ben, Brian, Dad and I left for Mexico City later in the morning for Ben and Brian's flight back to the States.

We had lunch at the Carl's Jr. there in the airport...
leave it to them to have to have a funny picture!

I'm lucky that I didn't get my camera taken away... I took this picture just before they went through Security and as I started to take another, the Security person wagged his finger at me, as if to say, "Don't do it..." And just like that they were gone. Ben flew to North Carolina to meet up with his roommate and good friend, Josh Locklear. Brian was on his way to Utah to spend a week with Lindsay and Darren, and then he will return to Arizona to finish his Senior year of High School. I was pretty emotional the rest of the day...

It will probably take us awhile to get used to this new phase of life,
but we have 200 missionaries to keep us busy while that happens!

Africam!

So I guess our family really loves animals! Taylor, Nicole and Ben said they all wanted to go to Africam, so we went to see all the animals one more time. This makes our third trip to Africam, but we love it every time! It's fun because we are so close to the animals and we can open the doors and windows and feel like we're even closer. We even came home with all our fingers and toes! Enjoy the pictures...

Christmas with the fam

Christmas is always better when there are little children involved...

On Christmas Eve, Van opening his present from Santa...

cutest little guy around!

We started out Christmas morning like we usually do... Dad read the account in Luke 2 of the story of Christ's birth.

Taylor and Nicole

Ryan was not feeling well at all. He got very sick from some tacos he ate or something...

Brian in his usual blanket


Then we opened the Christmas Stockings to see what Santa brought...

Then came the presents!

Van figured out how to open his presents pretty quickly, then he decided he needed to help everyone else open theirs!

Taylor gave Nicole a mini quad for Christmas...

Kimber gave Brian some snowboarding gloves...

After opening the presents, we went to church for one meeting with both wards in attendance. Robert, Ben, Brian and Taylor sang "The First Noel" with Kimber accompanying them on the piano. It was beautiful and really brought the Spirit into the meeting.
After church, we came back and had dinner and enjoyed the day with the family.

We were also able to skype with Larry and Melanie and Lindsay and Darren.
All in all, a very good day!

On the 26th, we had new missionaries arrive from Mexico and the States.

Our new Mexican missionaries, Elder Ulloa, Elder Betts, Elder Perdomo, President and Sister Reeves, Elder Leon, Elder Cruz, Elder Prosper, Elder Ugalde

Our new American missionaries and two Peruvian Missionaries, Elder Mendoza, Elder Whitney, Elder Kubosumi, Elder Young, Sister and President Reeves, Elder Rodriguez, Elder Barnes and Elder Knowlton (this was taken the morning of the 27th, as our American elders arrived late Monday night).

The new trainers with the new missionaries...

While we were training, the kids went to the soccer field down the street and played some soccer.




I think they had a good time! After soccer, the kids went to a tienda across the street and got some tortas for lunch. Kimber, Ryan and Van were heading to Mexico City to continue their Christmas vacation by spending a few days with Ryan's parents who are serving as Mission Presidents in the Mexico City East mission. Our office elders drove them to Mexico City to drop them off. It was the first of our goodbyes this week and wasn't fun at all. We will miss you...

Family visits for Christmas!

Kimber, Ryan and Van arrived here for Christmas on the 21st and Taylor and Nicole arrived on the 22nd. We were so excited to have them all come to visit! Ryan and Kimber flew into Mexico City on Wednesday, so a little after noon, Ben, Brian, President and I drove our van into the city to pick them up at the airport. First, we went to the wrong terminal because we didn't know they were coming in to the other one, but by the time we got to the arrival area, they had barely gotten through customs. So it worked out pretty well. They had some glitches in their travel plans, but finally made it through with all their children, bags and belongings. By the time we got back into Puebla, it was fairly late so we just headed for the house and got settled.

The next morning we all piled into the big Mission Van and headed to the airport in Puebla to pick up Taylor and Nicole.

While we waited for their plane to land, we watched a soccer game going on next door to the airport.


It was really good to see Taylor again and fun to meet Nicole, finally!

One of the things we wanted to do was to see the Pyramids in Cacaxtla, which is really close to the airport, so we headed over there.














After walking around both of the pyramid sites, we went into town for lunch and some shopping. The cemitas and tacos are amazing and are really inexpensive, so it's one of our favorite places to eat. We parked right outside of this church...

The next day, on Friday, we headed to Tehuecan early to visit the Zoo. It was a good thing that we left early because about half way there we got a flat tire. Another good thing was that we didn't take the freeway, but we were right in the middle of town when it blew, so we were able to get another tire quickly and be on our way. Here they have a tire store about every mile or so, so Robert, Taylor and Ben walked to the store, bought a tire, waited while they put it on the rim then walked it back and put it on the van. We continued on our way till we stopped for gas. After filling the tank, we found out that they didn't take credit cards, so Robert, Ryan and Taylor caught a taxi into town to get some cash to pay for the gas. Four hours after leaving Puebla, we made it to the zoo. But it was worth it... enjoy the pictures!